Ans. “I am from ballia (Uttar Pradesh). Did my ug from Bankura (West Bengal) with aipmt rank 2305.
My hobbies are singing, reading novels and traveling. I am from a non-medical background. My father is a retired civil servant and mother is a homemaker. Both my siblings are elder to me. Sister is a teacher in middle school while brother is a lecturer in Kendriya Vidyalaya.”

Q. What is the secret of your success?

Ans. Hard work and belief in my abilities. There is no shortcut to success. And the smart study is one more thing that is very important.

Q. How was your internship?

Ans. The internship was very hectic.interns used to do a lot of work in all major postings.there was hardly any time for study but learned a lot clinically which will surely make me a better clinician in future.

Q. When did you seriously start preparing for the entrance exam?

Ans. I was a very late starter. I could start only after the internship.

Q. How many hours did you study each day? How long do you think students need to prepare for cracking PG medical entrance exams?

Ans. “I used to study 10 hrs on average. After September I cranked it up to 14 to 16 hrs.
For cracking pg exams I think minimum 10 hrs per day is the need.”

Q. Which books did you read for the theory part?

Ans. Harrison, Robbins and Bailey and love

Q. Which books did you read for the MCQs? Which MCQ books were the most productive and which were least?

Ans. I solved NBE based review questions from pulse publications and followed it religiously. Apart from that, I solved obgy, radiology, microbiology, pathology, psychiatry and dermatology from DAMS Study material(CRS-2016)

Q. Which subjects did you focus on?

Ans. Obs.and Gynae., Anatomy, biochemistry, and microbiology.

Q. What were your study methods? How many revisions did you do for each subject? Did you make any changes in your study methods in your recent attempts?

Ans. “I used to study in the library from 8 am to 8 pm.
I revised each and every subject approximately 6 to 8 times. The surgery I could only revise for 4 times.
I changed my approach a lot this year.previously I used to solve subject wise questions but this year I focused more on previous year questions.
Yes, I made a lot of one-liner based notes for quick revision at last.”

Q. Did you do any special preparation for image-based questions?

Ans. Dams DVT was the best thing that happened as far as image-based questions are concerned. It helped me a lot

Q. What was your strategy for the exam day? How many questions did you attempt and why? How many do you think you got correct?

Ans. I attempted all in neet pg and I think I got around 225 correct.

Q. Do think there should be a different strategy for preparation of different entrance exams like AIIMS-PG, PGI and DNB CET?

Ans. “No, the strategy should be more or less same. Just a little bit of focus on previous year questions of PGI is needed for PGI examination
“

Q. Did you join any classes or test series? Was it useful?

Ans. “Yes, I was a Damsonian. Did dams regular in 2015-16 and Test and discussion in 2016-17.
It was of immense help.”

Q. Who or what influenced you to take up Medicine?

Ans. “My sister.
She wanted to be a doctor but due to some reasons, she couldn’t go for it. I am happy that I lived her dream and made it a reality.”

Q. In which field do you want to specialize in? Why?

Ans. General Medicine. Though all the subjects attract me, its the only one that will give me the opportunity to do what I want to do.

Q. What seat have you been allotted in counseling? Did you join?

Ans. Didn’t attend dnb June 2016 counseling. Neet pg 2017 I have been allotted Darbhanga medical college, m.d.general medicine in the 1st round of counseling. In all probability, it will be upgraded in the 2nd round.

Q. What is your advice to future aspirants?

Ans. Study smartly from the 6th semester. The future is going to be very very competitive so you have to be up for every challenge.

Q. Indian PG entrances are highly competitive, so to crack them students end up in appearing for multiple PG exams with some of them having the same exam with different slots and papers, please extend your views on this and their pros and cons of appearing in multiple PG entrances.

Ans. “One day one exam should be the norm
Multiple session exams are not good as it doesn’t assess the knowledge of all candidates equally.”

We are ending this interview with our hearty congratulations and best wishes for future to this talented person, Dr. Gopambuj Singh Rathod.